Carlyle, Robert (1961- )

Scottish actor. He made his film debut in Ken Loach's Riff-Raff (1990), a building-site-set examination of class struggle, and went on to enjoy a string of successes in UK film and television, notably in the films Trainspotting (1996) and The Full Monty (1997). He has emerged as one of the leading British actors of his generation, often playing working-class men either down on their luck or embroiled in the criminal underworld. He has a talent for both comedy and drama, and great skill in reproducing regional accents. He gained international recognition for his role as a Bond villain in The World is Not Enough (2000).

His versatility as an actor has also been demonstrated in his television work, since 1995 starring as the eponymous police constable in Hamish Macbeth, as a violent drug dealer in Looking After Jo Jo (1998), and as Adolf Hitler in Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003). His other films include Priest (1993), Carla's Song (1996), Face (1997), Angela's Ashes (1999), The 51st State (2001), and Black and White (2002).